I have a few comments about axe for thief.
I noticed is that the axe skills don't give shadow force when you are a specter spending initiative with axe 2 and 3. This makes it more difficult to recharge your shadow shroud. Another is that the axe is slow and very easy to dodge, making the axe more difficult to play in compensative game modes, when all target has to do is run to avoid being hit, not even dodge.
The tooltip for a/d 3 says it teleports behind the target, but instead is shadow stepping to the target. Also, why are we teleporting to target with a/d? I understand that dagger 5 is a melee attack, but that is technically the only melee attack since the axe is a ranged weapon. Also, why does the spinning axes return to me and not go straight to the target when using a/d, it makes it even more difficult to hit the target if the target is moving. I personally find it hard as a thief to lock down a target and feel like most of the time I am "setting up" axes, only for them to fly past the person I am targeting.
I find a condi build is great with the axe, but only on a stationary target, which makes the axe a difficult choice to bring into pvp and/or wvw, with wvw being to game mode I spend most of the time enjoying.
Edit: also forgot to mention that when the axes go off a ledge or something, they follow the ground, so on a tower wall or near a cliff, makes it even more difficult to use axe 3 to hit a target